The aerodynamic shape of a steam driven car that is being developed to race at more than 200mph has been created with the help of Norbord‘s lightweight MDF, Caberlite.
The material is being used by the British Steam Car Challenge team which aims to break the previous world record of 127mph on the Bonneville salt flats in the US in October.
The team needed a strong, smooth material that could be cut to tight tolerances to create a three-dimensional shape over which the shell of the car could be moulded.
The 5.25m-long and 1.7m-wide car was designed on computer, and 50 cross-sectional horizontal and vertical shapes were created to provide templates for the car-shaped body form.
Team manager Frank Swanston said the Caberlite was easy to handle and responded well to laser cutting. “In fact, the tolerances are so fine that the whole structure holds together like a jigsaw puzzle and makes it extremely rigid,” he said.
